Setting Dawn
by Dawn Totadile
Summary: Darkness has fallen on the world and it seems that all hope is lost when a young girl is summoned from the mists of time and space. With amnesia and courage, she battles her way through a paralyzed world, but will that be enough to see the Dawn again? Follow her and her friends as they travel across the world on the quest for the Time gears. Here goes her own PMD adventure.
1. Chapter 1: Into the Darkness

Chapter 1 Into the Dark

Imagine a dark world where time is frozen, where darkness is all that stands in this world. Where a few creatures roam around with free will and movement, where avalanches are frozen in mid fall, where tree leaves look like they should be blowing, but they stay frozen to the side, where flowers are frozen in mid bloom, fruit that never lost its flavor or grew anymore. If a plant was grabbed, or was picked then it would be replaced automatically by an exact replica, as though nothing had been touched.

There was a forest near the edge of a cliff. The forest was dark and the trees were pale in color. The leaves were pale sickly green. The fruit and flowers were all as pale as a shadow. If you dared to look up into the sky, then you would notice no sun, stars, or moon. Only an ominous dark sky, as though midnight, yet you could still see where you were going.

A large dark genie like figure floated out of the forest, over to the cliff. The creature was tall, dark, and a Cyclops genie. He had one eye on his head and a face painted on his stomach. This was Darius Dusk, the Dusknoir, an Admiral of Primal Dialga's army of Darkness. He was a very charismatic leader, which stood his ground and gave orders like he would never fail. He radiated confidence, as well as a degree of style and dignity. Darius was a Dark Ghost, or a Dark type Pokémon. He blended in to the scenery quite well; in fact only one creature could beat him, a traitor that he had once worked with him as an equal, it was a grass type.

Primal Dialga is a steel type dragon that was consumed by darkness. His only instincts were to survive and maintain control of the world. Dialga was originally a good dragon that protected time, and kept it running smoothly. He had turned evil when a great power was destroyed, after that only Pokémon, and a few humans, could move properly, as though time still worked for them.

Darius looked off of the cliff and out into the scene below. A rock face that had once been called Sharpedo's Bluff, on account of it looked like a Sharpedo's face. At one time, it had been the most beautiful place to see a sunrise. Now, it was merely a cliff that at the edge of a forest that led up to an abandoned town that was once a "Treasure" of a town, hence its name, Treasure town.

Treasure town had once been an amazing place, as well as home to the best trained exploration teams on the planet. Exploration teams are made of Pokémon who want to help others, as well as discover new things. Some were only treasure hunters, while others tried to rescue other Pokémon. There were even teams made just to rescue other teams.

Darius looked around to see if anyone was there to watch what he was about to do, he only saw a bush that was frozen in its summer form of full greenery and a few blue flowers were starting to bloom. It now looked like a shadow of its beauty, for it was pale.

As soon as he was satisfied with his isolation, he closed his eye and started chanting something under his breath. He started to open the mouth on his stomach wide. As it opened, a strange gold and purple glow came from it. The glow formed into a sphere and was shot out at the open air, just above the edge of the cliff. The sphere began to expand and form into a tunnel.

"I summon a force to help me with my task of helping Master Dialga keep control of the time. I summon a force to oppose the forces against me. I summon a child who will listen with no knowledge of past. I summon a partner." Said Darius in a calm, clear voice. It was too quiet for anyone off of the cliff to hear.

The bush behind him seemed to flinch a bit at that. Darius was too busy to notice. The portal was now blowing in a fresh wind and was full of bright colors. A silhouette of a young human formed in the door of the portal. It was so small that it could only be a child. A youngster with short hair, standing at about 4ft. 2in. Its arms spread out like trying to hold onto the portal. The child fell out of the portal and as it fell a light from the portal shot it back up into the sky for about 10 seconds. As the child floated down it seemed to have its clothing appear to grow out of it. By the time the child landed, it was wearing a Trench coat that was almost as long as it. The Child was also wearing a black cap over its hair. Its hair was kept in the cap. The child's shoes were black tennis shoes that were worn. The child landed on one knee, with its head down at an angle.

"Rise child, rise to the challenge of this world." Darius said under his breath.

The child's eyes glowed a harsh, forest green from under the cap. As the glow died down the child stood up and held its ground as a harsh wind blew from the portal. The portal started to close and the wind grew icy.

The child held a cold stare that was almost a dead man's gaze as it stared at Darius and the bush. The child seemed to be mesmerized as it looked around. It shook its head and the child's stare grew more natural and observant. "What is going on here? Wha... Where am I? Who am I?" The child's voice was calm, yet worried, strong, yet seemed weak. It was hard to tell whether the child was a boy or girl still.

Darius was about to speak when a blinding flash of light came up. "Arrrgh, my eye! I can't see! Hurry, we must escape, boy!" Darius was floating around blindly.

The child squinted at that and ran. The child ran right into the light towards a shadow that seemed to be behind it. The shadow had a hand on an orb from where the light seemed to come from, while the other hand seemed to be waiting for something. The child reached out its hand in hopes to grab on to something. The shadowy hand that was waiting grabbed onto the child. The shadow's voice was calm, cool, collect, and yet it seemed like a young boy's voice with a man's controlling tone, "I noticed that you had a choice, so why not the obvious one? Why this one?"

The child only replied, "I don't know. It just felt right."

The shadow nodded and led the child down a hole under the bush. There was a waterfall that was frozen in the back over to the left of the entrance. "Let's wait here till we sort this all out." He said as he moved the bush back into place and placed the orb in a small bag around his neck. As the light died down it became evident that the child's rescuer was another strange creature. A Pokémon called a Grovyle. He was tall, strong, and buff. He had dark forest green scales and a dark lava red under belly. His eyes were like a human's but they still had a triangular edge to them. They were Deep Forest Green with a neon yellowish background. The long leaf on his head was like a whip, and the other leaves on him were as sharp as a samurai's sword. "Name's Grovyle, by the way. What's yours?"

The child stared downward as it tried to think of something. "I .. I don't remember."

Grovyle stared at the child and noticed a blonde strand of hair sticking out of the kid's cap. Then he had an idea. "Why not take a look at yourself and then choose one, or would you rather someone else chose for you?" He asked. He kept the face of a rock, but his eyes showed a hint of sympathy.

The child took off the cap and let **_her_** hair fall down. It was tied in a ponytail, but you could still see that it was blonde with a lightning bolt that was as black as the shadows at midnight. Her left eye was as dark as a healthy, dark, green forest. Her right eye was as blue as the deepest ocean on a stormy day. They were full of compassion, worry, and yet they were also full of determination, kindness, and strength. She stared at Grovyle without any hesitation, without any doubt, and without any fear. Her pale skin looked even paler in the dim light of the frozen twilight sky.

'A girl… well what do you know, Darius was wrong. Heh.' Grovyle took a good look at her and circled her once. She had a smile on her face that looked as bright as sunshine. She also had a warm feeling about her, as though everything would be alright.

She looked at herself and frowned. She liked the outfit, but she could not place a name to herself or how she started to wear such dark clothes. "I… I think you should give me a name, Mr. Grovyle, sir. I can't think of anything." She looked down at her feet and had her hands behind her back.

"It's just Grovyle, and as for your name, well… are you sure you want me to name you?" He kept the face of a rock as he asked.

"Yes, I am sure. I… I don't like the other guy. He seemed…. Well he seemed confused. You only seem a little confused." She mumbled a bit as though afraid of something.

'She seems very worried about something. What should I call her though?' He thought about it for a minute while staring her right in the eyes. As he did he saw her left eye turn into the same ocean blue as her right eye. He shook his head at this and figured it was a human thing. Grovyle stayed as far away from humans as possible, mainly because if he ever got a partner and one of them got hurt… well… he did not even want to think about it. He looked again at her and said "You seem quite bright for a young girl…. How about something, bright?"

The little girl fixed her hair so that it was back in the cap properly this time and no one could see it. Her blue eyes stared off as though blind. She blinked and asked "When does the Dawn come?" as though she did not hear him.

Grovyle blinked, he did not know how to answer this child. She was a little girl, he did not know how she would respond to the truth. He took a look at her face and saw determination in her eyes.

'Might as well tell the truth.' He figured. "It won't come, kid. No one has seen the sun since … well since the time gears stopped and the Temporal Tower broke." He stood there waiting for a reaction.

The little girl just stood there and stared out the mouth of the cliff. After a bit she finally said, "If the Dawn is not coming, then I will become it. I will become Dawn." She smiled at the thought of it.

Grovyle was surprised and yet he did not show it. 'What a pretty name. I think she will do well with a name like that. I sense a bright aura from her. I wonder why I can sense it? Maybe soon, I will see it as well.' Grovyle looked at young "Dawn" and said, "Fine, when we get to base we can register you as Dawn." He said as though it was just a thought hanging around.

Dawn smiled, "alright, but how do we get there with him hanging about?" she asked pointing up to indicate Darius.

"Don't make me laugh, Dusknoir couldn't find a needle in a haystack, never mind me, so the same goes with any one with me." Grovyle said with a hint of confidence in his voice as he walked over to a pile of rocks at the back of the cave. He shoved some aside and a small hole appeared. "Ladies first." He said like a gentleman. He tried to hide a smirk as Dawn feigned a curtsey and walked in. Her smile was as warm as the dawn. Grovyle then covered the hole back up as they both went in all the while thinking 'The name suits her'.

Dawn waited at the bottom of a set of stairs that were carved out of rock. Normally anyone would be blind at first from coming into this dark world, and yet, Dawn seemed to see as well as though she was raised there. Grovyle caught up to her and they both walked down a corridor. The whole place was made of rock. They soon opened up into a big chamber. In that chamber stood a boy and a sphinx like Pokémon. The boy had purple hair and eyes. He looked like a rich kid, but he was smiling even though he was dirty. He wore a white outfit with a small tie that was messed up. The sphinx like Pokémon was called a Meowth. He had a sphinx head, but a small cat body and could walk on his hind legs like a man, and talk like one as well.

The Meowth was messing with filing papers while the little boy was putting stuff away in filing cabinets. "Who's the kid, Grovyle?" the meowth asked, as though he was actually paying attention. The meowth went and grabbed a card from a drawer in a desk near an exit. He grabbed a pen and camera from the top of the cabinet. The cabinet was a silver filing cabinet, standard office stuff. He set out the card and pen on a small table made of oak wood.

"Dawn." Was all he said to the strange creature.

Dawn was looking around while standing next to Grovyle.

"Right, well I am Mark, and this is my human partner, James. You better have Don taken to the professor after this." He said as he handed the kid the card to sign her name.

She smirked as she saw it read "Don". She shook her head and thought for a minute. She wrote out the name "Dawn Rose Dewdrop" on the card and chuckled.

Mark looked at the card, then at the kid. He then noticed the feminine features in her face. He fixed the card and handed it back to her.

She nodded. "Thanks."

She followed the Grovyle out of the room. As they walked down another dark corridor, Grovyle asked "Why a full name and why that one?"

She shrugged and pulled her dark cap down lower, "I just figured a full one would sound normal, where a first name only would make it seem like something was wrong with me." She looked down as though upset with herself. "I also just wrote the first thing that came to mind."

He nodded in understanding, he himself was called the Grovyle of Twilight's Court because no one knew his name either. His face was harder than his heart. His emotions were more hidden than a needle in a haystack, and that is really hard when it's darker than the black screen on your television when it's turned off or broke down outside always.


	2. Chapter 2: Partners?

"Grovyle, who is this?" Asked a man of about thirty years of age, he had white hair with three electric blue bolts in his hair, a white lab coat, and a set of blue jeans and a white shirt on. He sounded like how you would imagine Santa Claus to sound. His electric blue eyes looked as though he was looking at a lost soul, doomed to wander forever. He seemed to pity the young girl.

"Professor, this is Dawn. Dawn, this is Professor Heart." Again, no emotion was in his voice, or in his eyes. He felt worse than the professor about this. Another creature had been brought to this world of horror. Most creatures brought here were either Pokémon or human. Some though were other types of creatures, such as animals from other worlds or versions of a world. So many worlds combined into one, as though the world itself thought that one of them would be its savior.

Dawn looked up at this man and thought, 'What did I do? Why is he so sad?' She scrunched her face like a little kid. After a second she smiled a big smile and held out her hand and said, "Hi, how are you?"

Amused by this, Professor Daniel Heart held out his hand and shook hers. "I will live, that much I know. How are you?" He had on a playful smile, as though someone had just told him a good joke.

"I am a little disoriented. I read that word in a book somewhere. I think." She grimaced.

"Good word. Now, how did you end up here?"

"I followed Mr. Grovyle here." Her voice was like that of an innocent eight year old. Not as mature as it had been with just Grovyle.

'Interesting, she seems to be able to change her voice. She sounds like a little kid now. How strange.' thought Grovyle as he seemed to fade into the shadows. 'Why did she change it though?'

The professor smiled at the youth, "No, my dear, how did you end up in this world?"

"Oh, that…. I don't remember very well, I only remember the end of it. I was summoned by a weird Cyclops genie. He was very confused." She chuckled at the last bit.

"That's Darius Dusknoir! He got you first? But then how did…?"

"I'm afraid I intervened before he could do more than summon her. He thought Dawn was a boy. Easy mistake unless you here her speak or see her hair." He said as though it was obvious and normal for this to happen.

Dawn just smirked at this and sat down next to a case full of poke'balls.

"Well than we should go and get you situated, you might be here for a while." His face went somber as he said this.

Dawn just shrugged as though this was nothing new to her. 'With no dawn coming it means that time is really frozen. I wonder if there is anything I can do to help.'

Grovyle stared at Dawn as the professor talked on needlessly while trying to explain boundaries and what was happening. The two only got snatches of what he said. "We will also need to get you a partner." He said at last.

Dawn looked up with determination. While the professor had been talking, she had been thinking about how she would try to help out around here. Her thoughts and plans had involved only her. She figured no one would be willing to babysit a little girl with amnesia. "A partner?"

"Yes, a partner. A Pokémon partner to be exact. The partner you get will protect you and train you to survive in this world." He said calmly.

Dawn now had a worried face on. This made her even more grateful for the oversized black cap that she pulled in low on her face. 'If I have a partner, they might get hurt trying to help me stay safe. I should work on my own. I might not fare so well then though. Ugh, it is a bit of a problem. One hand has me with a partner, who might get hurt, and the other hand has me lost on my own and doing more harm than good possibly.'

All the while, Grovyle watched the kid and noticed that she was silent. 'I wonder what she would be like if the world was normal, if we had met under normal circumstances?' When the world froze, most personalities ended up different from what they had originally been. Those who were happy were now most likely to be the saddest of them all, and the dark ones were a little happier. 'What was she?'

"I don't think a partner would be a good idea. If everything is as bad as you say it is, then shouldn't you keep your Pokémon to defend more important people than me, in other words anyone else." She sounded more confident than she felt.

The professor was too busy looking through a set of files for a partner to notice her.

'She needs to get some confidence. I must be getting old. I actually feel sorry for this kid.' Grovyle looked from the kid to the professor. 'I must be losing my mind.' "Professor, I will take the kid on as my partner." He said. His face was the most serious thing in the world.

Professor Heart stopped what he was doing and quite literally dropped everything.

Dawn, who did not understand the significance of this, looked up questioningly at the strange creature. 'What does he want to waste his time with me for? He knows I have amnesia.'

"G...Grovyle, Are you serious? You're actually going to request her for a p...p... partner?! You said you hated humans, and that you never wanted a partner!" The professor stuttered.

Dawn blinked at that. 'Hates humans and never wanted a partner. Well I guess that makes it even more obvious that I should work alone. Maybe I can even find an on switch to this time problem.' She shook her head. 'I should think better, I can't think like this or I won't make it. I don't know the first thing about surviving out here, and with amnesia it might get harder.'

"I never said I hated humans, Daniel. I just don't like having to deal with humans who can't think for themselves and require Pokémon to do all the thinking for them." He said in a serious voice that matched his face.

Dawn looked up at this and raised an eyebrow while giving a smirk. 'So he doesn't hate me. He just acts like this to seem tough. I think.'

Grovyle walked over to an old looking file cabinet. It looked like it would blow away in a gust of wind. "It's amazing how things can still get dusty even with time frozen." He muttered to himself. He blew on a file and opened it up. He grabbed three cards from inside of it. "Now, Daniel, you are going to let me do this my way. She gets to be trained by me and my friend. He even has someone he has been working with, a young Chimchar. You know all of this of course. Now, you will upload their data and mine into that dumb machine of yours." He sounded even angrier for some reason. As though someone had been left behind on a do or die mission.

Dawn looked up at him and then to the professor. She walked over to the computer and looked at a slot next to it for cards. "Hand'em and I'll scan'em." She said. She held out a hand for them. Her blue eyes were now forest green again.

The professor stared at this girl with worry. "I don't think you understand…"

Grovyle tossed her the cards, which she caught with no difficulty. "She knows what she's doing, at least at this point. Kid, you know that once you scan those, you have to listen to what I say and pay attention to what I tell you, right?"

Dawn looked at him with eyes that seemed to see through him. Her smirk grew. She looked at the cards and scanned the one that had Grovyle's Data on it. His face showed up on the screen with a check mark on it. "Right, but I think a partnership works both ways, just remember that." She then swiped the other two cards.

The second card had an Oshawott on it. Its white face looked cute, but that didn't fool Dawn. The Oshawott had been in a few fights, and as if to prove it, a small scar was about two inches under his left eye. He was smiling, but it was a war smile, the type of smile that puts you on edge and made you think, 'Oh boy, now I'm going to get it.' The name on the card was "K.O. the fierce.

The last card had a Chimchar on it. Its eyes were as black as coal, where the Oshawott had as black as Onyx jewels. Her fire seemed to give her a look that was almost as scary as the Oshawott. Her name was Mandy Firemelody.

Dawn nodded once as she finished with the cards. She placed the cards into a pocket and then scanned her own. The computer took a few more seconds on this and then checked her in. She was now with these three till the end, but the end of what?


	3. Chapter 3: Off We Go

Dawn was given a Treasure bag for supplies. The treasure bag was a small black satchel with a box of first aid supplies, 2 apples, 2 blue berries called Oran berries, a sleeping bag, a flint and steel set, and a small sling shot. Dawn attached a bag full of rocks called geo pebbles to a belt she now wore. She thanked the professor and walked out of the room. Grovyle is already waiting for her.

"Ready to go, kid?"

"Where to first, Big guy?" She keeps her voice even.

'She still has no idea what we just agreed to I guess.' He brought her out another tunnel that first led through an underground village. The village was made of the walls that had been hollowed out by humans and Pokémon alike. There was no real color other than a dark, pale, brown in the city. Barely anyone was outside. A few Electric type Pokémon were in the street. They lit the place up enough for people to see.

Grovyle led her through town and out an exit on the far side of town. When they got there, a small staircase was barely visible. He started to climb the stairs and Dawn followed. The bag was slung over her so that it was easy to access.

Once Grovyle reached the top of the stairwell, he moved a hidden door that opened up to the surface. "We are going to go meet the other two members of our team." He climbed out and left a hand in for Dawn to grab onto.

Dawn grabbed onto the hand and climbed up. They were in a building that was like an igloo made of rocks and twigs. "Where are we?"

"Kangaskhan's Warehouse belonged to a normal type Pokémon who stored items for any team that needed them stored for safe keeping. She is probably frozen somewhere nearby. Any Pokémon who was not frozen is still moving." He said unemotionally. He looked at Dawn who was looking around the place. Her eyes were sad and confused.

"Why did this happen?" She asked shaking her head.

Grovyle looked at her with a pang of sadness. He kept his emotions hidden. He could only say this, "I do not know, kid. I just don't know."

Dawn pursed her lips and glanced to her right.

Grovyle took a look around outside while Dawn waited inside. He was now in the middle of Treasure Town. To his left were the remains of a Kecleon Bro. Inc. Shop. The shop used to supply rescue teams with all sort of supplies from food to clothes to even items to through. Across the dirt road was the remains of an old tent site. The site used to house a psychic Pokémon called Xavier Xatu. He would make a killing off of the deal by charging one-hundred and fifty Poke' per box.

Grovyle walked over to the Kecleon shop and scanned the shelves for any other leftovers that had been left behind. All he found was a small wooden sword, a scabbard for the sword, and a belt that could attach to the scabbard. The belt was a black over shoulder belt. The scabbard was also black, as was the wood for the sword. Etched into the sides of the sword were two names; Tri-Light and Twilight.

'What is this doing here? I did not see this when I came up last time. K.O. knows more about swords than I do, but for now the kid can use it for fighting at close quarters. Her slingshot will only work on long distance fights.' He looked at the sword with curiosity and suspicion. He shook his head and figured 'It's just a wooden sword. It will do more for defense than for damage anyway.'

When he got back to Dawn, she was standing in the darker shadows of the room waiting for him. She looked at him a little confused. "Do you always go with nothing and come back with a sword? Or is this just how you greet every little girl you rescue?" She had tilted her head to her left and cocked a "Sure you do" smirk.

"Do you always run off towards blinding lights, hurtling into the unknown, when you don't know what else to do?" Then he froze. 'A joke? I told a joke? Why did I do that? I must be getting old.' He shook his head.

Dawn was too busy staring off to notice.

"What are you staring at kid?"

"Nothing, just into the darkness, that's all."

Grovyle nodded. Around here it was common for humans to lose focus and stare off into the dark. He set the sword down and said, "I think this might help you out in this world. After all a sling shot is only good for long distance. This you can at least bat away enemies till help comes."

"Why not just teach me to fight?" She asked before she even realized the question she had just asked.

"Because, Dawn, it's not easy if you don't already have the natural skills for it. I have yet to meet a human that could be trained by a Pokémon to fight. You humans have your own style of fighting yes, but it's a bit unorthodox. In other words; it is ineffective, alright?"

Dawn looked at him with a bit of disappointment. 'If I can't fight, then why take me along with you?'

"Come on; let's get moving before we get spotted or something." He walks out as Dawn puts on the sword belt and sheaths the sword.

As they left the town, Grovyle left a few strange looking coins on the Kecleon Shop's counter. "Always pay for what you take, kid. Someday they might unfreeze and find all their stuff gone. That is why it is best to leave some coins for them. These coins are native to this world. They are called Poke'. They can be found almost anywhere now, and they are useless except in this way." Grovyle explained as they left town.

Dawn followed Grovyle without question, as though it was the most natural thing to do. Grovyle noticed this with a hint of amusement. 'She seems more like a leader than a follower. Maybe she knows that if she follows me she will learn the territory better. All I know is that she is acting most unusual for a human. Even Pokémon who are natural leaders have problems with following anyone else. Oh well. It looks like we are going to get along better than I thought. She seems to be quiet enough, and intelligence might come to her if she tries.'

They eventually walked into a huge, thick, greyish-green forest. In this forest was a certain type of tree that was known as Poison trees. These poisonous trees used to be normal oak trees until time froze over. Once time froze over thorns started to form on the sides of the trunks. These thorns became poisonous with the pain that was felt in the hearts of those around it. Those who touch the trees must either be a poison type Pokémon or be a complete innocent of heart.

"Grovyle where are we?" Dawn asked as she weaved past the thorns, following Grovyle's movements exactly. She had buttoned up her trench coat so that she could move without being caught on the thorns. She held her Treasure bag close to her side. She glanced nervously at the treetops and wondered 'what is wrong with the trees? Why does this place feel so … so … injured?'

Grovyle looked at his young charge and said, "This place was once known as Tree Shroud Forest. It used to be the training grounds of the Guardians."


	4. Chapter 4: The Guardians

"What are Guardians? What… what happened to them?" Dawn's gaze turned down to the right, as though trying to remember something sad.

Grovyle looked at the clearing they were in. He sat down on a rock and said, "Sit, and I'll explain the best I can." His face was serious and hard. His voice was like steel.

Dawn sat down on the ground and looked up at Grovyle. Her eyes sparkled with curiosity. It was as though she knew nothing but pure kindness one minute, but then would try to remember something painful the next.

"Guardians were special creatures, not just Pokémon, who would be assigned to other certain creatures. Most of them were assigned to two families of powerful beings. One was the Dayatas who ruled time, while the other family, the Martinez family, ruled dimensions or space. Supposedly, before all this mess occurred, there was some sort of disaster. The two families had always fought each other. So they had never thought about what could happen if one of each had fallen in love with one another. A Martinez and a Dayata, who were never told of their heritage, married and had children. Supposedly, this was the start of the whole Guardians' disappearance. The last guardians who were assigned to the children of these two disappeared. I happen to know a guardian who was taken away from his human. He was doing a good job too. He doesn't even know if the kid is still around or not. Guardians for humans were the toughest, but ones for the Dayatas and Martinez's were even tougher than the normal ones. He is supposedly the last guardian. I have seen proof of there being others, but I am not one-hundred percent sure. To this day, any guardians left are either in hiding, or frozen within time."

Dawn was asleep when he had finished his little story. She had laid down on her little treasure bag as though it was as soft as a pillow. Her blonde hair was showing out of her cap with barely a sign of the bolt. She was wearing a small smile on her face, as though she had just heard that her favorite princess got her happily ever after in the end. She looked like a normal little girl rather than the tough kid she was trying to be.

'Well what do you know? She is just a little girl. She sure has guts though to stare this all down and not cry out how crazy this all is, in fact she hasn't even cried out for her mother. I hear a lot of little kids do that. I wonder if she really is as tough as she acts, or if she is affected by this world to act like this. I hope she makes it farther than some of the other people who get stuck here.' He shook his head and just started to stare off, as though looking for meaning in this world for himself as well.


	5. Chapter 5: Going Soft?

"Crack" went a branch as someone stepped on it. Dawn immediately jolted into an upright position. One hand on the ground, ready to push her up into a fighting stance, while the other hand was on her hat, fixing it in place so her hair was in the cap. Her eyes were now full of determination again, but no fear. It was as though she did not know the meaning of it. Grovyle just stood up calmly, but swiftly, as though he noticed, but did not seem to worry about it.

"Get back to sleep kid, I'll take a look around and check it out." He said, as he looked right through the forest with a deadly gaze. He seemed to know just where to look.

Dawn looked at Grovyle and nodded once. She laid down her head slowly onto her bag again, but this time grasped the strap. She was ready to bolt, if her partner ever told her to run. She was certain of his confidence as a fighter, but not of hers.

Certain that Dawn was asleep; Grovyle walked a perimeter of fifty feet around her. 'I don't know why, but I feel like I must protect her. Maybe this is what being a partner is all about.' He was too distracted with his thoughts that he did not notice how far he was from her until he was sixty feet away. "Whoops, looks like I need to clear my head. Glad no one noticed." He muttered.

"Excuse me, Grovyle, but did I just here you say, 'Whoops'? Are you going soft? For a child no less? Now I've seen it all." Chuckled a deep voice. It seemed hallow, but firm. Darius Dusknoir came out of the shadow behind a tree.

"You know what has always confused me, Darius? How is it that there are always shadows when I'm around? Some others seem to have that same problem as well. It really is just strange, since there is no source of light around here or anywhere unless its man-made or Pokémon made light. Seriously, why?" Grovyle put on a look of slight amusement. 'Darn, I was too busy thinking that I forgot to let my instincts get to work.'

"Don't go changing the subject, Grovyle, even if it is a good one. We have a more important one at hand to discuss. Give me the boy, and I might let you die a quick death, even though you are a traitor." Darius' eye seemed to smile in place of not having a real mouth. "You were easy to track down with that little boy slowing you down." He seemed to be chuckling.

Grovyle in turn smirked and said, "Bravo, bravo, Darius. Where are your Sableyes, who really did the tracking though? They are the ones who broke the branch that woke the kid from its nap you know. The kid heard the branch and woke up with a start, which was quite rude of you." He seemed to be enjoying this. 'He still thinks that the kid is a boy, ha. What a joke. He would never be able to work with a little girl. Then again, he would probably think the same about me. I have to keep the kid safe, though. She is a human, and most likely cannot even do human fighting styles all that well.'

Darius smiled in such a way that even the mouth on his stomach smiled widely. "I sent them ahead to get the boy. I'm sure that they are there by now."

Grovyle gave up the joking tone and was ticked off at his own stupidity. 'Dawn's in trouble!' as soon as he realized that, he turned and ran back towards the clearing where he had left her. When he got there, no one but Sableyes were there. He hid himself in the treetops before he could be seen.

"I don't get it, the child's scent ends right here at this bit of clothes." Said a puzzled Sableye as he examined a t-shirt and pair of jeans and flip-flops.

'Dawn, what happened to her? She was just down there a minute ago!' forgetting that time did not apply in this world, he looked worriedly from his branch in the tree.

Darius arrived and stood next to the tree that Grovyle was in. "It seems that he was asleep to long, eh boys? He must have been time frozen. Oh well, at least we still have the traitor." He said calmly as he knocked on the tree with his fist. Grovyle fell from the branch startled. To add to his stun he was shot as he fell, by Darius. He was out cold when he landed.


End file.
